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For what it’s worth, when I write these pieces for the magazine, I know in advance what the page-flow will be. In this case, it meant I was aware this would be the last of my reviews in the issue, so I tried to give it the sense of also rounding off my reviews thus far. A sort of ’till next month…‘ feeling.

I’ll get to it later, but I wasn’t especially upbeat coming into this series. That was only because the Christmas episode – which prompted an extremely positive reaction in general – left me cold (no pun). This, I thought, was representative of the new direction for Peter Capaldi’s final year.

It sort of was too. But, as it transpired, once Bill was locked into the equation, I really enjoyed what was to follow.

And it’s a piece about which I have no ‘additional’ material whatsoever to share at this bit, before the break. Instead, I’ll solicit good internet karma by popping in a link to the website where you can purchase the DVD under review.Continue reading →

It’s been a long time, Doctor. It really has. When the title sequence roared on Christmas Day – the cogs, the spiralized clockface – it was palpable that we hadn’t seen it for a whole year. You shouldn’t have left us. In your absence, 2016 went to absolute pot, with cultural divisions deepening both domestically and internationally, wholesale mayhem across UK politics, the passing of many of our most beloved figures and obviously, hoo-boy, the Shadow Kin.

The final selection of extra bits from the DWM 2017 Yearbook (in shops now!). And here’s Deb Stanish, Erika Ensign and Katrina Griffiths from the Verity! podcast.

Full disclosure – I didn’t actually interview the trio together. I spoke, first, to Deb via Skype, then met up with Kat while she was visiting London, and finally Erika, again over Skype. I’m running their answers below in one narrative as each discussion covered similar topics.

The DWM 2017 Yearbook is out today. I’ve got a few bits in it, including a feature on Doctor Who podcasting, in which I spoke to the makers of Reality Bomb, Verity! and Radio Free Skaro.

Everyone involved in these endeavours proved to be 1) Charming and 2) Generous with their time – and I took up a lot of it. But, because of my allotted word-count, I had to really compress each interview for publication. Therefore, I’m taking this opportunity to run some ‘unseen’ footage from each here.

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Above is a picture of Kazimierz Piotr Jerzy Brachacki. In 1952, he applied for British citizenship, and became known as Peter. Anyone reading this will know, he designed the TARDIS interior – a brilliant, ageless piece of work.

In DWM #506 (on sale now) I attempt to tell his story – something that was only possible with the help of his widow, Gaby, and oldest son, Alexis.

It was summer 2015 when I first got in touch with them, and in the year-and-a-half since, we’ve spoken on several occasions, and they’ve both been very generous with their time. Furthermore, Alexis even shared with me unpublished images of Peter’s work and – following a trip to visit his paternal relatives in Poland – unearthed pictures of his father during the 1940s and ’50s. You can see many of them in the new DWM, but I’d thought I’d share a few more here.Continue reading →

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The following is the final entry in Steve Berry’s Doctor Who book, Behind The Sofa, originally published in 2012, and to which my dad – who died this morning – contributed. If you’re so moved, please support Alzheimer’s Research UK.